(21 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE: MATERIAL CONTAINS IMAGE OF DEAD BODY++
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Deir al-Balah, Central Gaza Strip – 21 July 2025
1. Various of bodies of two killed children on the ground
2. Various of people praying for victims
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Nidal Ezz Al-Deen, relative of killed victim:
"We were displaced five days ago (from Khan Younis), and we came here to Deir al-Balah in the al-Birka area. This morning, we were displaced from al-Birka while we were in the car. We were targeted by heavy gunfire from the occupation’s vehicles, tanks, and soldiers, directly and intensively. We have two martyrs and four injuries."
4. Women mourning their killed relatives
5. Various of father sitting near wrapped bodies of his children
6. Boy kissing face of his brother’s body
7. Various of blood on vehicle window
8. Various of vehicle loaded with bodies of killed children leaving hospital
STORYLINE:
Israeli ground troops for the first time Monday pushed into areas of a central Gaza city where several aid groups are based, in what appeared to be the latest effort to carve up the Palestinian territory with military corridors.
Deir al-Balah is the only Gaza city that has not seen major ground operations or suffered widespread devastation in 21 months of war, leading to speculation that the Hamas militant group holds large numbers of hostages there.
The main group representing hostages’ families said it was “shocked and alarmed” by the incursion, which was confirmed by an Israeli military official, and demanded answers from Israeli leaders.
The Palestinian death toll from the war has climbed to more than 59,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Its count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of the dead are women and children.
The ministry is part of the Hamas government, but the U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.
Hundreds of people have been killed while seeking food in recent weeks, both from U.N. convoys and separate aid sites run by an Israeli-backed group that has been mired in controversy.
Meanwhile, Associated Press reporters heard explosions and saw smoke rising from parts of Deir al Balah that were ordered evacuated on Sunday.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said it was the first time ground troops had operated in the area.
A man living in the evacuation zone, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said Israel dropped pamphlets at dawn ordering people to evacuate.
Two hours later, tanks rolled into the area.
He said his 62-year-old father, who had spent the night elsewhere, fled from house to house as Israeli forces moved in and saw them flattening structures with bulldozers and tanks.
Both men managed to leave the evacuation zone.
The military declined to say if it had ordered the evacuation of aid groups based in the city, saying only that it maintains continuous contact with them and facilitates their relocation when necessary.
Israel has taken over large areas of Gaza and split the territory with corridors stretching from the border to the sea as it seeks to pressure Hamas to release more hostages.
In response to the Deir al-Balah incursion, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum warned in its statement that “the people of Israel will not forgive anyone who knowingly endangered the hostages — both the living and the deceased. No one will be able to claim they didn’t know what was at stake."
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